"Can you show us on here?" she asked, holding a device about the size of a tablet. Aiden tapped at the screen to find the section containing animal words. With some reminders to use his "pointer finger," he found the button to make the device say "monkey."

"There, you got it!" Shovlin-Miller said, asking him next to tell her what color the monkey is.

The LIU, which serves students in York, Adams and Franklin counties, held its annual ACES (Assistive Communication Electronic System) Day on Thursday. Students who cannot verbally communicate for various reasons gathered at the LIU's New Oxford headquarters for activities centered on the theme "Communicate Your Story."

Janice Tucker, supervisor of speech language services for the LIU, said that the 25-year-old event aims to have kids use their devices and to give parents a chance to network. The activities are designed to get the kids communicating. For example, at one station they could interview Harry Potter. Using stickers, they filled in their own story in a book along the way.

Some of the students have some degree of speaking ability, while others might not be able to make a sound, Tucker said. Most of them use electronic devices — often referred to as their "talkers" — to speak, while others might use picture cards to answer questions.

Jeff Herbst, a speech therapist dressed as Buzz Lightyear, asked a student how he looked. After laughing, Maxwell Davison, a 9-year-old Dallastown Area School District student, chose "silly" from options presented through picture cards.

The whole point is to bring kids who use alternative communication together, Herbst said, and to "give them an opportunity in a very pragmatic way ... to have spontaneous communication."

For many of the kids, "their worlds are predictable," he said, so the event gives them a chance to really use their communication skills.

Littlestown resident Tammie Pinkas, Aiden's grandmother, said he has holoprosencephaly, a disorder that leaves him unable to say a lot of words that others understand, among other things. Before he had a device to help him communicate, "it was just a guessing game," she said. He knows what he wants to say, but it's hard for others to figure it out.

As Aiden continued to dig into the sand table, Pinkas said she thought the LIU event was "very cool."

"He gets to see other kids that are like him," she said.

Vijay Singal, a student in the Dallastown Area School District, has cerebral palsy and started using a communication device when he was 4, according to his mom, Brenda Singal. His current device also allows him to connect to the Internet and can even be used as a cellphone.

Asked his favorite part of Tuesday's event, Vijay, now 18, pressed the buttons to answer "different things to do."

"It's a neat way to meet other folks that have speech-generating devices," his mom said.

Shovlin-Miller asked Corey Franklin, a 17-year-old student in the Dover Area School District, what he found in the sand table, and he pushed buttons on a handheld device until a voice said "stegosaurus."

Rick Focht, a school psychologist who has worked with Corey for several years, said the student wasn't big on using his device at first, but now whips it right out to talk. Corey, using his device, said Wii bowling was his favorite part of Thursday's event.

The ACES program "encourages him in a natural setting and environment to communicate with others," Focht said.

Contact Angie Mason at 771-2048.

At a glance

The Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12 held activities Thursday for students who use devices to help them communicate. Activities included interviewing characters such as Buzz Lightyear and Harry Potter, spending time with therapy dogs, meeting librarians and finding items in a sand table.

The students earned stickers at each station they visited, which they used to fill in a story about their day. The students were scheduled to gather for lunch, have a sing-a-long, and one student was to share his story from the day.

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